Prince Rupert Pacific Coast students pedal on water

A ‘trek budget’ enabled Pacific Coast School students to experience hydro bikes available for public rental in the Prince Rupert Harbour on June 9.

More than 15 students and staff participated in the afternoon event, split into two sessions, where the youth, alongside their teachers, bicycled on the waters surrounding the city.

“None of the students that are here on this trip have done it before,” Chryst0pher Thompson, Indigenous education mentor and trip supervisor said, admitting he also had never tried the water bikes.

“[We thought] it’d be a really cool, unique experience to get out on the water just to have some fun.”

Thompson explained the school has an allocated fund they are able to utilize for activities to benefit the students.

“So at the alternate school, we have a trek budget where we like to take the kids out. It’s been really challenging during the last couple years because of COVID, obviously,” he said.

With activities opening up now, Thompson said he is trying to plan more events for the students, suggesting the lava beds, camping or being out on the water.

“We are still just trying to explore how to reopen everything, now that COVID allows us to do that again,” the students’ mentor said.